These are the best programs I have been able to find in their respective categories. Open Source or freeware if possible, that is.
They all run on windows as that is what I’m using at the moment.
Mail / Browser:
- Firefox – Browser
- Thunderbird – Email client
- Pop peeper – Email notification and viewing on mail server.
Music/Sound:
- Tag’n’Rename – Tagging mp3 files with id3 tags.
- MusicBrainz – Automatic id3 tagging based on acoustic fingerprint.
- MP3 Gain – Normalize the volume of mp3 files.
- EAC – Exact Audio Copy – Good audio ripper (encodes with LAME (for example)).
- EvilLyrics – Instantly gets lyrics for the song currently playing in your media player.
- Kx Audio driver – ASIO support for your Creative sound card.
- Audacity – Basic audio recording/editing.
- LAME – High quality mp3 encoder.
Media player:
- BSPlayer – Very good video player.
- Real/Quicktime Alternative – If you don’t likes Real’s own player..
- Media Player Classic
Text Editor:
Outliner/Notes/Personal Information Manager:
Tools:
- AppRocket – Very nice program launcher.
- SlickRun – A freeware program launcher.
- WinMerge – Find and merge differences in text files.
- Total Commander – Excellent file commander.
- StartUp Monitor – Will notify if a program tries to register itself for running at start-up.
- nLite – Trim and customize your Windows installation cd.
- PEBuilder – Make a bootable Windows XP rescue/system cd.
- Start Menu Cleaner – Delete invalid shortcuts from the start menu.
- SysInternals Process Explorer – Shows which processes and programs are running and files which are opened by these.
- Startup Control Panel – Gives an better overview of programs running at start-up than msconfig.
- Copy Path to Clipboard Shell Extension – Copy the path to a file/folder using the right-click menu.
- ClipX – Very small and useful clip board history program.
- Daemon Tools – Virtual cd drive for cd images.
Picture viewer / graphics:
- Exifer – Image browser / exif viewer.
- Irfan View – Image viewer.
- Mezer Tools – Measure screen elements / colours and take screen shots.
- The Panorama Factory – Very good panoramic image stitcher.
- Mosaic Creator – Mosaics from images.
- Noise Ninja – Removal of noise in photos.
Misc:
- NASA World Wind – Open source program from NASA, displaying the world as a 3D map.
Firewall:
Video encoding:
- VirtualDub – Video encoding and manipulation.
File transfer:
- Built-in ftp support in Total Commander..
- SmartFTP is nice as well.
- WinSCP3 for scp (secure copy) and sftp (secure ftp).
If you have any recommendations then please add them in the comments.